Sunday, September 16, 2012

I’m going to preface this review with a
confession: I’d never seen a Wes Anderson film before this one. Not even The
Royal Tenenbaums. I know. Some film buff I am. But anyway, just keep that in
mind while reading this.

Had this movie not
gotten the supremely high critical acclaim that it did, I probably wouldn’t
ever have seen it. The trailer showed me a quirky family romantic comedy about
a boy scout, Sam, and a “troubled” girl, Suzy, and their journey as they run
away so they can be together. Does that sound like a movie I would be even
remotely interested in? No. However, I had a free movie ticket and Moonrise Kingdom was the most
interesting thing that was screening. And now it may well be one of my
favourite movies of the year.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad idea to review Cosmopolis
right after having finally overhauled this blog. It’s by no means a mainstream
film, and my opinion is sort of controversial. Or maybe that’s a good thing.
We’ll see.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Why is it that most gamers determine whether a game is casual
or hardcore by either its price tag or the “maturity” of its subject matter? Just
Cause 2 is a perfect example of a full price (well, at launch, at least) game
that has “highly mature” subject matter but is in every sense of the word a
casual game. And that’s something more games should aspire to be.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

When the trailer for Chronicle came out, I remember
immediately despising it. It showed us a bunch of arsehole teenagers getting
superpowers and becoming bigger arseholes. It had terrible music, cheesy
moments (that cross-legged car-crushing shot that’s in the trailer is still the
worst part of the movie) and used the found-footage technique, which I really
wasn’t a fan of at the time. It was because of this trailer that I never
bothered seeing it in the cinema. Despite the great reviews it got and the
numerous recommendations from friends, I just didn’t give a shit. So, after
finally watching it upon its DVD release, did it live up to the hype or did the
trailer, for once, not lie? Let’s just say I’ve watched it three times since
buying it.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

I’m going to just rip the band-aid off quickly before it
becomes too excruciating. The Dark Knight Rises isn’t very good. There, I said
it. Before I devour all the faults of the film, I want to make it very clear
that it’s not awful. It’s an okay movie, and had it been the first film in the
series (even if that would have made absolutely no sense) I would have been a
little less harsh on it. But the simple fact of the matter is that I couldn’t
walk into this movie with an objective point of view because I’ve seen the
first two Batman movies and I love them to bits. It is humanly impossible for
me to detach those two movies from my mind while viewing this one, and I don’t
see any reason why I should. A precedent was set, and said precedent was not
lived up to. I would also like to clarify that precedent is different to hype.
I actually wasn’t very excited for The Dark Knight Rises. I tried very hard not
to think about it and let it creep up on me. I remember talking with a friend of
mine and saying “when we see The Dark Knight Rises” and subsequently realising
we were going to see it the following week! I was more hyped for The Dark
Knight than for The Dark Knight Rises, and I was far more satisfied with it
than I was with this. Here is why.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Before I begin this review, I’d like to apologise that
I haven’t posted any reviews for the last two weeks. I have had some important
exams on and decided not to write any reviews until they were over. I’ll
release two extra reviews to make up for the two weeks that I missed. Anyway,
let’s get to it.

Liquid Rising is a really niche documentary, to say the
least. Funded by online pay-what-you-want donations, it tells us about the
members of Team Liquid, arguably the biggest non-Korean professional Starcraft
2 team. Their lives in Team Liquid, their tournament careers, and their
personality are all shown in detail here, through a bunch of cut-up interviews
with all the Team Liquid members and other big Starcraft community
personalities. I’m going to say right now that if you are against the prospect
of gaming being considered a sport, you’ll find no enjoyment here. In fact,
unless you already have some level of interest in Starcraft and E-sports, you
probably won’t find anything to like here at all.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

This marks my first review for an independent Australian movie.
I'm not really sure if I want to do a lot more of these. On one hand I'm
supporting my local film industry (my monumental pool of readers would make
such a difference, right?), but on the other hand I'm potentially alienating my
international audience (that is to say, most of you) by reviewing something you
guys will probably have a very hard time finding. I mean, I hadn't even heard
of this movie before I walked into the cinema and I live literally 10 minutes
away from the vast majority of its locations! Although maybe I shouldn't take
this kind of stuff into consideration and should just review whatever I feel
like writing about.

In any case, Careless Love is directed by John
Duigan, who I hadn't heard of before but apparently is a pretty big name in the Australian film
industry. It follows Linh, a
student at the University Of Sydney who has a secret night job as a prostitute.
The story is made up of several subplots, each revolving around her interaction
with another individual.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Alright, my first game
review! I hope to do more of these in the future, as reviewing games is
ultimately where I want to be at in 10 years or so. Hopefully I don't do too
bad a job.

So Dear Esther was
originally a mod released in 2008 for Half-Life 2. It has recently been remade
into a proper game, and, as I understand it, something quite different from the
original mod. It's on Steam now, and it goes for $10 AUS. However, if you're
reading this around the time of my writing it, the Steam summer sales should be
starting any day now, so I'm sure you'll be able to grab it for $5, or maybe
even less.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Before I begin this
review, I'd like to make it clear that I had read all 3 books in the Hunger
Games trilogy before I saw the movie. I do not believe that an adaptation
should try to mirror whatever it is based on. It can be as identical or
loosely-based or somewhere in-between as it likes, as long as it can be understood
without any knowledge of the original material. However, I generally believe
that the adaptation should not be exactly the same as the original, as a change
in medium almost always requires changes in the text for consistent quality to
exist. I ask you to read this review with this in mind, as I will be
criticising the film with this perspective. This will be the case with any
future reviews of adaptations also. So, let's review The Hunger Games!

I came into The Hunger Games expecting a mediocre film. I saw it a few weeks
after it was released, and had heard a lot of things that didn't sound
promising. Having said that, I was still excited to some degree,
being a fan of the books (the first one in particular), and was interested in
seeing the story come to life in a new format.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Melancholia is a
special film, to say the least. It is a difficult film to review, primarily due
to its story structure, because the generally accepted and unspoken rule that
the reviewer may not spoil anything that happens after the 1st act
cannot apply to such a film. Luckily, I’m writing this review almost a full
year after its release, so I can simply follow the method of the reviewers
before me.

The film opens
with a sequence of extremely slo-mo shots depicting the end of the world, and
the film (don’t worry, not a spoiler), through the collision of two planets.
There are around 16 shots altogether, and they are all some of the most
beautiful images I have ever seen in my life. They really are. The only quarrel
I have is that one or two of them lean slightly too much towards photography,
rather than cinematography. They just don’t really have enough movement to be
considered actual cinematography. But this really the most minor of minor
complaints.

Monday, May 7, 2012

The Best Exotic
Marigold Hotel is a British-made comedy-drama by director John Madden, famous
for the largely adored Shakespeare in Love. We follow seven British retirees as
they travel to India for one reason or another, headed to the hotel that gives
the film its title. Upon arrival, they discover that the hotel is far less
luxurious than advertised, and their experiences transform them all in one way
or another.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Greetings, internet! It's a pleasure meeting you all. On this blog, I will be reviewing games and films of many varieties. I will mainly review whatever it is I have recently experienced that I find would be interesting to review, be it old or new. If I, out of some beautiful miracle, find myself receiving requests, I will try to review those too. I primarily play games on my PC, but I also have a PS3, 3DS and PSP (all three of which I hardly ever use), so I will be limited to reviewing games on these particular platforms. I go to the cinema moderately frequently (it really just depends on how much I actually care about what's coming out) and see most of my movies on DVD. Due to this, I will be limited by my sub-atomic budget when it comes to how many things I can review. I suppose I could always go and re-watch a movie I own and haven't seen for a while if I ever feel I'm running short on material.I look forward to releasing content and hope to get more than 10 hits!